Instrumental Only (w/ Bart Millard)

what's going on ladies and gentlemen or you know if you don't i suppose if you're not a lady or a gentleman you can uh you're welcome to be in the pot too hey easton oh dude no no alex today no alex today yeah we did have a guest bart's coming into the show but there's uh me and you when do we once last time do we ever do a solo without a guest yeah uh no we never have my son alex isn't here we think it was like dusty was here and uh and my brother's here what if we did one and uh i forgot i do remember it though he's in the squad yeah who's his name dude we had eric weber we had aaron weber aaron weber yeah we had aaron weber brian bates brian bates oh the squad nate squad yeah we got all three of them what do you think we could we ever get to what if if i'm not at the episode would you and alex do one yeah i mean i feel like i didn't need to We'd have to call you in. I would have to listen to it. Let me see if I support this or not. Get an AI for John. Oh, yeah. Dialed in to the studio. Just talk about all the things you disagree with. Yeah. No, I'm not. That's how I – every time there's a take that y'all don't agree with, I go, hey, just put the camera on me. Have you been watching the Olympics? I've been watching a little bit of it. It's, like, weird. It always confuses me with the coverage I have. Very confusing. Very confusing. I don't know if I'm watching stuff live or it's a recap. I can't tell. Yeah. But I'll see the guy with the – the dude that does the golf stuff, the guy who's, you know, I watched his little recap in the evening time. Oh, Mike Tirico? Yeah, Tirico. The dude that does the golf stuff is crazy. He's got everything. For Mike Tirico. He's elite. Him and Jim Nance are elite golf sponsors. He's not elite. He's arguably the best announcer of anything ever. I always thought that some of those, I always thought there was like a funny sketch video about people that are, they're like Olympic athletes and they're like married and they like are like saying they're doing this event. I go, that seems. Yeah. You know how like if your spouse goes on dancing with the stars, you're like watching, you're like this seems yes i don't know if i like this you know i'm saying they're like oh my uh my figure skating partner you're like all right and then you're like we're like doing a uh skeleton you're like all right well this seems like across the line but you can't be like it's it's bro the craziest one the craziest sport i think of any olympics is that skiing thing where they got the rifle on their back skiing what is that what what is that how could you i wonder if they have full time jobs they have other jobs i don't but does that get paid does the country pay them sometimes depending on the country the country sometimes pays them skiing and shooting at the same time the same time how is that who was like yeah we're gonna and then you're like how is azer by john good at this yeah yeah let's see what the metal count is right now see what the metal count is dial up the metal count uh ladies and gentlemen i'm going on tour starting this weekend i got that you looked that up i got going on tour starting this weekend ladies and gentlemen nashville tennessee then i'm going to springfield missouri louisville kentucky then i'm going up to the northeast ithaca redding glenside new york returning to nashville march the 9th i believe that show sold out milwaukee jackson missouri rockford illinois cedar rapids columbia missouri fayetteville two shows little rock anaheim three shows stockton thousand oaks el paso tucson houston two shows waco about to be two shows fort worth two shows amadio wilmington evans durham jack Jacksonville, Asheville, Columbia, Mobile, Florence, and Atlanta, Georgia. What do we got, dude? We're getting smoked a little bit. We're getting cooked. Norway is in first right now. 13. 13 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze. Yeah. Italy, which is the home team, so it might be interesting. The home team of who? Got 9-4. It's in Italy. Oh, it's in Italy. I got that. It's all over the place, but they're a title sponsor, I guess. Yeah. Winning a lot of medals, you know, they took home silver in the World War. But come on, dude. Let's not do that. No, dude. Too early. Too early, dude. We got 20. All right. We got some ways to go. Yeah. How do, if we get a hockey gold, is that for, does everybody on the team get one? Does that count toward the medal or that's one gold? Yeah, I think so. I'm pretty sure everyone on the team gets one. Well, then we would have like 50 golds. Oh, you're saying in the case now. Yeah, it's one medal. I think that's one. But I think every participant on the team gets it. That's right, yeah. I've been dialed in. I like to, I'll turn, I'll flip over to the Olympics, see what's going on. It's always something wild that that guy's been doing for his whole life, and you go, oh, one millimeter short. Or it's, me and Lauren were talking about, like, the curling. I guess we got a golden curling, I think. Oh, yeah. But, like, how do you, how do you find out you're good at that? Yeah. Like, what if someone out there is just like the Michael Jordan of curling, and they just had no idea. They don't know. Yeah. And they live in Columbia. Yeah. Well, you're never going to be able to, yeah. Stuff. Did you watch the Quad Daddy or whatever his name is? The who? I don't know. It's like the Quad. He's like an ice skater. Yeah, who knows? Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever his name is. He has a nickname, Fairly Quad Parents or something like that. I don't know what his name is. This week's episode, ladies and gentlemen, brought to you by Ridge. Brand new. 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Too much. almost as big as their wife's purse i mean the only thing you need to flex there's no money in there yeah do you carry cash uh i'll carry like a couple 20s few 20s i don't carry oh yeah yeah i feel like i'm making a comeback money but cash is making a comeback all right nothing feels better than well you know off topic ramsey says that you're supposed to carry cash because you want to spend it less yeah when i have cash for some reason i feel like i'm not giving you cash dude i feel but i feel like when i have cash it's like oh this is just bonus money i'll just oh it's like Monopoly money. Yeah, because I'm used to seeing the digital numbers. Yeah, dude. Here, take some cash. Yeah, and it feels better to tip somebody in cash. 12 cards? No, that is a lot of cards. Well, I don't trust the... I don't trust... If you tip someone, I don't trust that that's going to them. If you give them cash, they're putting that in their pocket. And I go, don't look for them. But the Ridge Wallet has a money clip for bills or receipts or whatever. And you can flip through them pretty easy, too. And you've got 12 cards in there. Yeah. And it's literally like this thing, dude. Dave Ramsey says the more credit cards, the better. Yeah. Yeah, 12 of them. You can have a lot of debit cards. You can have a lot of bank cards. Losing your wallet is the worst, but with a Ridge AirTag attachment, you always know exactly where it is before panic mode kicks in. Interesting. Very impressive. No matter what you pick, Ridge has free shipping, 99-day risk-free trial lifetime warranty of their products. For a limited time, listen to this, ladies and gentlemen. Our listeners, 10% off at Ridge by using the code NETPOSITIVE at checkout. Just head to ridge.com. Use the code NETPOSITIVE, and you're all set. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Tell them the good folks over at Net Positive. Not Alex. Me and Easton only. Say, where'd you hear about it? Net Positive. But John and Easton only, not Alex. Facts. Because he's not here. And Alex has some news, but we'll let him reveal that if he wants to. Hot episode of the show today. Facts. Oh, yeah, we have Bart. We're trying to get Bart Millard in here for a while. The schedules converged. I can only imagine two. I can still only imagine should be the title of that movie, really. i can only imagine two i can still only imagine yeah uh they didn't talk to me about uh the naming it but it's out this friday in theaters part of his story uh i can only imagine was the first one in 2018 uh the christians are out back into the theaters go check out the uh movie great conversation about we got into touring comedy making music uh beautiful conversation with my friend ladies and gentlemen bart millard ladies and gentlemen honored to have him multi how many grammys you got none none no you have zero what like a susan lucci uh how many doves you got i have no idea glassy that's a flex you don't know how many you got uh ladies and gentlemen a recording artist a movie star um let's see how am i was going to introduce you uh i wanted to ask you about something actually ladies and gentlemen bart millard is here everybody in the studio trying to get you for a long time brother yeah i've been trying to get you to put me on for a long time no i'm a true fan well that we the uh thank you brother very kind i with the the uh what's it called the venn diagram finally came together you got a movie coming out yeah this i can only imagine two yeah coming out this friday yeah and they they sent you what do they do they send you your publicist go hey go and we were texting i was like we'll do come on the pod they give me a a huge list a wish list of things they want me to do yeah so initially i say yes no yes no yes no whatever and then i saw yours on there since we've been talking like i wasn't begging i was like hey dude you'd really have a real podcast really make me a champ if we could do this before the movie comes out oh yeah yeah we were very gracious well uh yeah the why i watched the movie and uh there's a lot of ptsd there's a lot of a lot of on the bus activity going on in that movie a lot of there's a lot of bus riding and my wife never answers the phone that's two things i learned from that movie always listen to my voicemail oh yeah wait how come you're never answering anything i know right did you know what i was gonna because every every uh every guest we have we go back we go back to the beginning of their instagram okay we go all the way back to the beginning and yours it's it's a tough scene back there bro back to 2014 15 think what that would be there wasn't even any promo now it's all commercial yeah right back then it was just like you were doing like face filters and like photos of your kids and stuff like that yeah we used to do all that stuff like when youtube was new we would do dumb stuff because it's hilarious you're like you with you with like a uh like a pinocchio nose right we're like remember that you're like this is crazy spoonhead yeah yeah i just thought it was funny and then your label's like hey we want to do this and you're like no i don't want to do it anymore well most of the uh most of the artist i'll be honest with you uh wipe them really yeah we all go all the way back and it only goes back and then they have like one from 2017 like two they like clean them brother let me tell you yours is not clean brother i'm not wiping nothing dude that's who i was that's who you are dude yeah yeah you know what i did see all the way back there at the beginning was the uh well i think it's still going on the uh the cruise because i I just got back from Wanda with Nate. How was it? It was awesome, man. Wait, is he doing the whole ship? Yeah. Nah, that's a terrible idea. What do you do? What do you guys do? Well, we did years ago. How many have you had? That's a good question. It's been about 13 years, but we used to do every other year. Okay. But now we do every year. But ours is different, man. So, first cruise I ever did was K-Love's Cruise. I think it was Toby Mac. I've done it. Toby Mac was like, I don't know if you're going to like it. And I was like, whatever. you know, the cruise is fine. So we get there, and the first day, they're like, don't hassle the artist, which is literally telling them to hassle. It's like legalism. Don't step on the lawn. They're going to step on the lawn. They're telling the people that are attending. Don't bother the artist. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the first day, I try to go to lunch, and it takes me about three hours to get back to my room because everyone's like, I know they told me not to, but God told me I should. And it's like the worst. Like every story is worse than the last one about somebody. With Imagine, my wife died or fell overboard, whatever. That's how you refer to I can only imagine. Shorten it up. No, just the John Lennon song. We don't have time for this whole song title. I don't get funny stories. We're that busy. We've got to tighten this up. Whenever you say imagine, I can only imagine. I'm sorry. I can only imagine. Okay, got it. Every story was heavy. I ended up staying in my room. My crew had written my food to me. I never left except for the show. and every morning I'd have about 20 or 30 letters stuck under my door where it would say, I know that they told me not to bother you, but it would be these just depressing letters. So we were like, I don't think I'm ever going to do that again. Then, very random, this is when Imagine kind of did a little bit on mainstream when it first came out. And what year was that? Let me guess, let me guess. I can only imagine. When did the song come out? Let me think. Yeah. That's good. That's good trivia. I hope I'm close to being right. All right. I was not in high school, and I graduated from high school in 2000. Maybe it was the end. I would say 2002. You're not sure. Oh, you're thinking. 2002. 2002 is when you graduated? When did you graduate? I'm going to say the song was out in 2002. I think that's when it initially released was 2002, I think. I wrote it in 99, and I think it was 2002 when it released. It was about 2003, 2004. when it did its thing in Christian and then we moved on to the next album called Spoken For and when we were promoting the single off that imagine right after 9-11 not long after that a station in Dallas called no lie, the station was called it was a pop station on Wild 100 called Fitz and Big Gay Steven in the Morning and uh and and that was their bit and they were like the dallas version like a howard stern show okay and uh and they uh they were playing a truth or dare on the air and it wasn't it was meant to be pretty perverted like and people want somebody called and said i dare you to play i can only imagine like we don't know what that is and then somebody else would call i dare you to and they're like stop no this is not the way this is you know we don't have the song yeah and then Somebody literally drove to the station to give them the CD. I didn't know about this until afterwards. And I lived in Dallas. Somebody called and said, hey, they're playing Imagine a Wild 100. I was like, there's no way. And when I turned it on, all they said was stop calling. We'll play it again in a second. And so for the next three hours of the show, it was the only song they kept playing. Really? And they talked about it the whole time. Like joking? Were they making fun of it? Well, at first they were like, yeah, we'll play it. because they were kind of getting dogged for all the crazy stuff they would do. But when they played it, people started calling in tears, thanking them and all the stuff. And it got really heavy. The reason I say, it was definitely, I wish I knew the exact time, but 9-11 had happened. And what was that? When was 9-11? What happened? No, I'm just joking. You refer to Imagine, 9-11. Some people don't know. It's been a long time. Everybody was just like, you know, they just, they were, I don't know, they were in a different state. I don't know. Oh, yeah. But they kept playing it. And what was my point in that? Oh, during that time, getting back to the original story, was when all that stuff went, oh, when it all went mainstream, we were trying to promote one song, and then it went crazy on mainstream radio. And we get this call to do the John Tesh cruise. Yeah, yeah. And it was like us and like. Yeah, heck yeah. Like us and maybe like a Rick Springfield. I can't remember who was on it. And so we're like, yeah, we'll do it. So we went. And you know how the cruise has the big theater, the main stage? And it maybe holds, what, 600, 700 people? I don't know. And the boat may hold 2,000. But John Tesh, he didn't want to do multiple shows. So whatever the theater held, like 600, that would be his sold-out crowd. And so the boat would be full of other people but just 600 to his deal. So when it dismissed, you could get lost and nobody would ever bother you. You know what I'm saying? Yep. So that's how we've done it ever since. We were like, that's the way to do it. So I'm never locked in. I mean, we're a small part of the boat. Yeah. Yeah, and so since then, we've loved it. Sorry, that was a long way to get to that. No, well, that's a very – yeah. I wonder if the – It shows over. The – obviously the song – how come it always is like it always played at like – At funerals? Yeah. It's like a happy song. I mean, I think it's the idea. You're thinking about what it's going to be like when you see Jesus. Sometimes, do you ever see somebody have a video where that's the montage, and you go, this is not what we had in mind when we wrote it? Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, I did write it after my dad died. Yeah. But it was a little different. Like, I was 19 when my father passed away. The movie kind of makes it feel like it all happened within a week, but it was longer. Also, it's your movie. Why don't you tell them that it don't happen? Well, I mean, you're taking 25 years of your life and cram it into two hours. So they make a timeline that you can tolerate, I guess. But my dad died when I was 19, and we were leaving the gravesite. My grandmother said, I can only imagine what your dad's seeing now. And then somebody along the way. Brother, you made this into a commercial, sentimental moment. And you pull out a pen? No. I'm going to write this down? Not yet. I'm going to make some money off of this, brother? The kicker was that somebody else said if your dad could choose, which I'm sure you've heard it, if they could choose, they'd rather be in heaven than be here with you. Well, I was 19. My dad had just kind of fallen in love with Jesus and become my best friend in the whole world from being an abusive person. And so, I mean, not going to lie, it kind of pissed me off. Like the questions in that course weren't like, because I'm super Christian, it was like, all right, God, what's so great about you that he would choose you over me? And so that was the original. was like i never thought about it like that and it was like all right because that's you don't tell a 19 year old when he's by himself all of a sudden that he would choose that now that was 91 i've actually wrote the song in 99 and so all those years i would write the phrase i can only imagine down on everything i get my hands on like i don't know if you were ever this kid maybe not and but this kid you practice your autograph or or you know like back before cell phones when you're on hold and can't go anywhere i would always just write down whatever you know or draw everything that i owned had i can only imagine written on it somewhere i don't know why that stuck with me but there was not a song no no there wasn't a song until 99 okay 99 we had an independent record we started the band in 94 and um and had like six independent records that did not great and then we had one last song to write on this last independent record and we the next day was our last day in the studio we were coming off the road and so i set up on the bus and and uh when i say bus we bought this old southern gospel bus it was a gutted out there's nothing on the inside just wood and this mattress company that we played for the church in florida made mattresses from that would line up the entire floor from the driver's seat all the way to the back it was just one floor mattress i don't know if that's legal brother no not at all and plywood on the walls like we we'd stop at the back slam on the brakes see how far we could roll and we We took three-hour shifts. We drove ourselves. Was anybody single at this time? We were trying to get girls back to this bus. I was everybody, but I had just gotten married. I'm not coming on. I had just gotten married. The rest were single. And, yeah, she was crazy enough to go for a little bit. On the bus? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, then she knows that you do know that she's with you. Yeah. Not for the rich and famous. No, no question. Yeah, yeah. No question. You got that confirmed. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, so I tried to. We had one more day and needed one more song, and so I tried to find an empty blank page in this spiral I carried, and every page I'd imagine on it, and I was like, all right, I'll try it. Try writing a song? I just wrote the lyrics really fast, but it's something I've been thinking about for literally years. And what's crazy is, I don't know if you've heard, they have the gospel music. It's like a museum that opened here. Have you heard about that? Yeah. Haven't seen it yet. Yeah, Eddie Carr as well, figurine or something like that. I don't know what's going to happen. They're going to need one of those bobbleheads. Nobody's going to get that joke except me and you, dude. So they were asking for stuff for the museum because of the movie coming out, and I was like, I haven't been there yet. I'm going to go. But I was looking for stuff, and I found this old little – I have a briefcase of my whole life. I don't know that. I carry, like, kid photos and stuff. And I found the original lyrics of Imagine. Oh, that you wrote originally. That I wrote originally that night. and on the other side it has all my bills I'm trying to pay while I'm having roommates and stuff and on the other side was and so I just gave it to them it's kind of cool I didn't know I still had it let me think what else what else would be in that hall of fame if the original you would have like the original you know like Michael Tate's flat top haircut that was in there let me think let me think what else is in there Mylon Lefebvre are you talking about in the museum yeah what's I'm guessing about what's in the museum. Oh, that's a good question. There'll be like Sandy Patty's hairspray or something like that. We should go together. We should go. We'll do a video down there. It's CCM all time. Yeah, I've seen pictures. It's kind of the history of CCM. I know there's some stuff from maybe a Rich Mullins. I don't know. But the stuff we didn't know. I think you would applaud the stuff we put in there. Because other than the original lyrics, it's like some fan built a guitar for us out of Lego. We were literally at our studio going, give him that. Yeah. Let's try that. What do you want to take? You can have that. On loan. I'll loan it to you. And we were taking it seriously. We still don't. You want to put a double word in there? Well, because you've been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yeah, because they got Michael Jackson's microphone. Yeah, it's legit. The Christian. That's a funny idea. What's in the Christian Music Hall of Fame? And I need to go see it. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, they'll be like, you know, Mary Marys. Like, no lie. We could. Oh, Mary Marys. No, the front porch swing from that album cover. Or just some shackles. That's a different museum, brother. That's a different museum, dude. I was talking about the song. Oh, yeah, yeah, obviously. They could ask for awards. Oh, yeah. So we gave them our most played song at Waffle House. Yeah. It's like a big gold waffle iron. Well, see, I feel like my buddies would do play, I can only imagine. It's like when you're at a bar and the game is over and then the Andy Stanley show comes on. And you're like, are we allowed to be drunk? Can we turn this off the TV? They kind of play it as a joke. But then it also, you always hear stories of like, I was doing whatever and whatever and then imagine, and it like took me to like a different place. I mean, we've heard stories. I mean. Thousands, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've heard a lot of people. I mean, you don't even have to be a Christian to know I can only imagine. Everybody knows that song. You think everybody on this planet has heard that song? I don't know about that. No. And you wrote it. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I did write it. Ernest, you know Ernest? He said some of the Post Malone, because I was learning about the writing, and you said you wrote it in 15 minutes. He said some of his biggest hits he wrote in about 10 minutes. I believe it. Yeah. And some of them are same with my jokes like the best ones are kind of just Yeah You like you hope you have a pen nearby or can get it down real quick Yeah Yeah I mean and you just I mean I don know why that is There's some songs that take two years that are fine, but then there's some that's like, yeah, it's just, you got to get it out of you. You think it's a, I mean, obviously a gift in a way that a talent, but you think it is a uh like why god would choose to one day give me a joke and some days not same with you with songs you know is that a gift uh how would you describe the process of you because does that make sense yeah it does um and you know not to be over spiritual but i think it applies to But whether you're writing jokes or whatever, but I think there's, for me, you know, like God's moving whether I'm in tune to it or not. And sometimes I kind of line up. You try to, I think I spend most of my life trying to line up with what God's already doing. And, you know, just pay attention. God's like, I can't get my will done on earth unless Bart is here to help me. No, yeah, that's exactly what he's saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. He's like, all right, dude. God, all right. I got some free time this afternoon. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know why. I just, you know, but they're, yeah, I don't know. What do you do now? Do you get the inspiration like you did? Do you pull out your phone? No, it's all AI now. Oh, yeah. It's not even you. This is the hologram. Yeah, it used to be spirit-led. Now it's just, you know. Man, speaking of Super Bowl, it was all AI and weight loss commercials. On what? On the Super Bowl commercials. Sorry, I was listening to the last episode. Yeah, we put an end to the Super Bowl commercials. Yeah. Yeah, rest in peace. That's what I, last few years it's been, I'd fast forward the game to watch the commercials. Now I'm like, what am I doing? And this game was rough to the last. I know, because you've texted me, you're like, when can I watch this Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime? And I was like, Bart, that's crazy for you to say something like that publicly. But I went with it. Hey, I paused the Super Bowl, and I watched both. I watched the other thing, and I watched Bad Bunny. I didn't think it of. You know what? When I did go back into your Instagram, there is a lot of... All right. I think what you're great at is you just put... It's not marketing anything. No, I don't know what that is. It's not selling anything. You never like... I don't know. You probably wouldn't even know this. All the way back through your Instagram, you're putting other artists on. You're like, this is a great song. This is a great movie. This is a great... Other artists. And back in, you just would put Ben Rector's album cover. 100%. I'm a fan. But you didn't even like an early adopter of Nate. Yeah. Very early. I mean, it was like 2017. Yeah. Him and that first Brian Regan album were the things that was like, it can be done. Yeah. You know, and yeah, man, Nate, first time I met him, he came to the premiere of the first movie. That's what I saw on your Instagram. Yeah. I said that would have been 2000. I think it was Chaz Corzine was buddies with his dad. And this is like, Nate had that amazing album. Jazz Corzine polo shirt would be in there. It should be. In the Hall of Fame? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to recommend it. But Nate, I'm standing there, and we're in this after party, and Nate walks up, and he's like, hey, man, that was a great movie. And I was like, oh, thanks. Oh, and I totally Chris Farley, like SNL, was like, oh, my gosh, you're. And then I just started rattling off all of his bits from that. Yeah, that's what he loves. Yeah, he's what he's old. He loves the spotlight on him, that's for sure. And I just kept walking towards him as he was backing away and doing jokes. And he's like, hey, this is a red carpet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been a huge fan for a long time. But, man, there's something weird. Like, I don't have what I call the hustle muscle, you know, just to self-promote like crazy. And if you're on Instagram and you're promoting yourself all the time, like, at least take a second to mention someone else. Or it just feels like an infomercial. Corey Asbury, you know what I'm saying? Promote someone else. I'm just joking. But, you know, I see a lot where that's all it is now. It's like, ah, it's not any fun. Yeah. You know? Yeah, it's just kind of like stuff that, like, I feel like a lot of the social media now is like, this was part of, like, a plan. Yeah. Like a branding plan versus, you're like, did this all started? as like i've seen recently people like a mom be like difference between a first born and a second i was like all right well that's content at the beginning you posting a photo of you and your kids is not it's for it's for the people that know you right that's how it all started you were like hey my friends would think this is funny yeah now it's like oh this is for mass now we're all the There's people that don't know me. Hopefully they want to know me. Yeah, now we're all in the content-making business. It's a good way of looking at it. Instead of just entertaining the people that you know, that your followers is like, just trying to get more followers. Yeah, you're not like writing, you're not like consuming songs. Now you're, in a way, everybody's making songs. Yeah, yeah. You're like, oh, well, this is different. Yeah, yeah. interesting way to go about what i i looked on your instagram there is multiple canceled artists on there that over the years oh that you have yeah put on wait did i do it like was that the reason i can't well maybe yeah i mean uh yeah i i mean yeah i mean that would they weren't canceled then yeah at the time well i was going to ask you about um i've always been curious and i'm not in the christian movie making business but like does it do you do kind of have to find people that are christian to to play the parts uh i don't i don't think that's i mean i'm i'm not i'm not that's not my job but no i don't think i don't think that's the case i think in In fact, yeah, no, you don't. I think you definitely, there's a connection. Like, you know, we met the cast, and the people are going to play it way before they get, like, in the process. And they're just genuinely amazing people. Like Milo Ventimiglia, is he a believer? I really have no idea. I don't think. Never came out. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm not one to go, if you were to die tonight, would you? Yeah, I'm not going to do that. That's your closer. But he has the kindest heart I've ever, ever known. And he's one of my dearest friends now. And, yeah, there's just – and he's the one that read the script and was like, I want to be a part of this. And, you know, he may not look at doing kingdom work or whatever, but he literally just – he saw a great movie that's about kindness and love. Well, it would be awkward if Jonathan Rumi, like, wasn't a Christian. He is a Christian. I'm kidding. I don't know him. They'd be like, hey, you're playing Jesus in the, what's the show? The show. You're like, dude, you kind of got to be on the team here a little bit. Right, yeah, yeah. Because you're doing all the press, and you're like, well, this guy's doing satanic rituals on his Instagram. Especially. That would mess it up a little. I'm kind of leaning into it, man. So it's like, I mean, he is a great guy. He's awesome. I don't know him. But before I knew him, I was like, man, he's really playing this thing up in interviews and stuff. But then I found out he's a real deal. He's a great guy. Yeah. Well, I guess it's the same as a church. If you go, you probably have experience with this. You're like the pastor, associate pastor, worship leader. But then you get down to the alternate drummer, and you're paying him $150. I don't know how much you get paid at a church to come play, but you're like, we should. Not our main drummer. Like foot string. Yeah, like our back, or maybe the backup. I mean, how many backups do you got? Yeah. Yeah. Are we sure that that guy is on the team? You know what I'm saying? To get embedded. Yeah. Or they like have a, you know, like I guess I went to a high school, a covenant high school. Meaning you had, it was a Christian school. You had to have a declaration. Oh, sure, sure. Of being a part of the faith to go there. You had to drink the Kool-Aid. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. Prick yourself a little. But there's some other, in Nashville, there's ones that are Christian. Yeah. But they're not covenant. Yeah. I think it's. Meaning you have to, like, be, like, you don't have to sign a contract. That would be illegal. I don't know if it's a contract, but I think it's pretty, I mean, it's not unusual, like, at least a declaration of faith on some level at a lot of Christian schools. Yeah. Not in the movies. Not in movies, no. The second grip. No. In fact, one of the coolest parts have been, like, and I know in movies in the past that Kingdom has done, and this one especially, was, like, when the cast leaves, they're, like, it was the greatest. environment like it was the best you know and this is shout out to like the nashville because it's filmed in nashville the the local crew here was like you know all of lion's game was like this is better than any hollywood crew we've ever worked with yeah i mean they killed it and these and and the whole cast is like i've never had a movie experience like this the way i've been treated you know man what's crazy about milo who played tim timmons when he got the part he was on zoom one day with tim timmons kind of learning his mannerisms and he was in his house in the palisades and his house started to burn down while he's on zoom with tim yeah he's like oh blank and he turns and shows tim of the things the house starting to burn down and he grabbed all he grabs the surfboard runs out his house and his in-laws house he just finished building in the palisades lost both of them and it was kingdom that said hey man like it was this is probably a month and a half two months before we started filming and he was literally homeless yeah and they were like hey, if you don't have anywhere to go, we'll find a fully furnished house. You can keep it as long as you want, long after we're filming, if you want to work your way here. And they took incredibly good care of him. And he still raves about it. Like the other day, the Saturday night was the premiere. And so you kind of assume, well, this is kind of the last time we're all going to be together. And he was in tears. And like the way you guys treated my family, that just doesn't happen in Hollywood ever. That's awesome. So that kind of stuff is really cool, and that's why I'm like, nothing against you have to be a believer to play the role or whatever, but, man, there's so much cool stuff happening with these people that may not know Jesus at all, and we're not sitting there having Bible studies and that kind of stuff, just treating them with kindness, and it resonates. And the Gospel Music Hall of Fame took that surfboard. But other than that, they go, we're going to need that surfboard, brother. Hey, I heard the story. They just come knocking on your door. Hey, brother. You got that surfboard? Any surfboard. We're going to need that surfboard, brother. Oh, yeah, rent it out to him. Yeah, it'll be like just the surfboard he signed. It's not even a real one. Well, that's, I guess, that's the, I remember I was on Winter Jam, and we went and saw, I can only imagine. Would that be, would that timeline line up? 2018? Yes. Yeah, that's when it came out. That's when I went. Okay, that's when I went. When were you on Winter Jam? Wait, Winter Jam took you to see it? Yeah, we went on like a field trip, bro. Wait, wait. Going on the Winter Jam bus? I think we did. Yeah, it was rollerblading one day, and then we're going to the movies next. We went on to PTSD. Don't mention rollerblading on this podcast. I was on Winter Jam like way back. It was like when Imagine took off the first time. We did Winter Jam once. You only did it once? Yeah, we did. And then we started a tour called the Rockin' Worship Roadshow. Brother, you don't have to say what that is. We know what that is. Well, but a lot of people don't know we started. Oh, you're trying to flex. I think you missed my agenda here. I didn't know you were trying to flex. And that started when Winter Jam always stayed in the south. And so we thought, man, and we originally loved the concept of cheap tickets. And you found out west of the Mississippi there are no Christians. Well, they weren't going anywhere out west, and so we took the road show away from Winter Jam, never wanted to compete or whatever, lost our shirts but had a blast. Yeah, yeah, $10 a ticket does not pay for gas to go to Portland. No, it turns out, you're like, why are they going to Peduca? I know why they don't go past Jackson. I get it now. Why have they got 18 trucks and the next show is in Bossier City? We learned a lot during that thing, but we had fun. I feel the same. You know, this is a, I've been going back to those markets myself. What's wild about our touring is like, all right, they go, you can go international if you want. You want to go to like Adelaide, Australia, and Perth, and then he goes, and you're going to make $1.50. Or you can go to Greenville, Augusta, Evans, Georgia, Columbia, and Virginia Beach and buy a house. That's why we've played out of the country like twice. It's paid vacation. You're lucky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't make money. But, yeah, I do have a question about stand-up. Because, like, one, how many people come with you? Me, brother. No, I'm just – there's probably – You just got to have company at least. That would be miserable. I'm with two other comics. But, I mean, so you're over with like a mic stand, maybe a stool. Even that, if the power's not on, we'll light a candle and have a conversation. I love when I walked in with you. You didn't give us a writer. I was like, I don't know what to write. I mean, I don't know. I think we have a writer. Yes, but your bandmates have a writer. You don't. Somebody does. Yeah, you flying on a helicopter. But I'm just saying, like, it's like, if you're doing it well, and I heard you talking about, like, and I'm coming on the reschedule, the 8th. Is that what the? Oh, yeah. Are you coming to the show? Heck yeah, I'm coming. Oh, yeah, brother. But, like, when you're saying, hey, tickets are almost gone, that's got to be, that's so great. because the amount of overhead that we have on a tour versus – I mean, I don't know what it is for a comedian. I was like – because there was one time we wanted to have a comedian open for us and realize – Ooh. I mean, or just be a tour. Shonda Pierce or something like that? It's going to open for you. Yeah, Nate wouldn't return my calls. But then we realized – He got a new number. He loves it. We realized that that would be a – that's not beneficial. Well, when you guys are leveled where you're selling out shows, it wouldn't make any sense. Oh, for the comedian. Yeah, to open for us because, like, if you're selling out, I don't care how big the venue is. Brother. You're doing great. You're, okay, Derek Stroop, who has been out with us for forever, is now out on his own. People, like, we do theaters, but you can, dude, you can break even at six people. I'm not joking. I can't now. It was still out at 12. Now, I have to, I would say now, because we got the bus, and the theaters cost money to rent. If we're below 400 people, we got a problem. Just from the promoter and the agent and the manager, a lot of costs. But you can, like, I've heard some, like, Taylor Swift, like, there's, no, I'm not going to mention her name, because I don't want to trash on her. Well, I will. No, I'm just kidding. There's an artist that booked an arena tour and canceled it in three days. Because the way they came out sales-wise, he goes, hey. They canceled that quick? Yeah, if an arena tour, I'll tell you who it is after. If an arena tour is 12,000 people, if you come out of the gate selling 200 tickets, brother, you've got a long way to go to profit. does that make sense are they canceling because of throat issues or yeah yeah no covid man that held up for a while okay hey they're still doing it yeah they are i'll tell you this and you and we've talked about this on this podcast before prior and i'm proudly never missed the day of school never missed the day of work never missed the show weren't you homeschooled yeah but you never didn't make it to the kitchen oh yeah yeah thank you really it was in the living I was homeschooled until eighth grade. Okay. Then I went to Christian school. Never missed a day. Never missed a day at work. Never showed up late. Never missed a show. Yeah. This week's episode brought to you by Cove. Oh, man. Cove. I got it all set up at my house. Do you? I got to tell a secret. I didn't do it myself. Classic. There's other people at the house that I go set up all this stuff, but they got the cameras all set up. They got the monitors on the windows. You found any suspicious activity out there? Well, I always looked out the front because I used to have the old doorbell out the front. Now I got the back. And that's where they deliver and stuff. You seen any suspicious activity out there yet? Well, it's helpful. I never had a camera back there, but it is helpful with the deliveries. Oh, that's true. I go, oh, I just saw it delivered because they always deliver to the back. That is true. So now you're like, oh, I got to have some. Well, I'm not trying to brag, but I live in a nice neighborhood. There's nobody stealing stuff. Yeah. People don't steal in our neighborhood. But it is nice to be like, all right, somebody go over there and get that because that's in the back. Yeah, I see it. Or sometimes it doesn't say it's there, but it's something important. It's kind of delayed. You get to see it on the camera. Same type thing. Oh, I came over. Let me look on the camera. Let me look on the camera. What's it? Make protecting your home. Oh, I guessed that. One of the New Year's resolutions. Check out cove.com at covesmart.com slash netpositive. Use the code netpositive at checkout. Up to 70% off your first order. And if you get the survey, be sure to tell them you heard about the cove from this podcast, not Alex, just John and Easton on the Net Positive podcast. This week's episode brought to you by Rocket Money. Everything's coming together. Ladies and gentlemen, you might think you have a solid handle on your budget. I bet you do. You're sitting there. Nah, I don't need Rocket Money. I got it figured out. Maybe your spreadsheet says you should have an extra $1,000 left over each month, but you ask. 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RocketMoney.com slash net positive. prior to to covid you never heard of a canceled show oh that's true never heard of it and now it's a lot of we're moving this i'm talking about the weekend today let's just yeah like there was like somebody was like the palisades fire i'm like in boston how is that affecting there's a lot of people moved in the there was a lot of yeah there's like they're like you know like trump has a press conference like let's go ahead and cancel this weekend it's really true like i mean nuts we uh um they sensitivity for what's going on in minneapolis we're going to cancel miami this weekend i go wait how is it's crazy because i know of some that have canceled using the covid excuse for reasons that didn't look bad on them like it wasn't like uh one right when everything opened back up everybody's booking tours like every venue was booked yeah you couldn't rent a bus to save your life. Oh, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, I remember that. And a friend of mine had a huge tour, and he couldn't land a single bus. Couldn't get a bus, yeah. And he ended up canceling most of his tours. It was like secondary COVID problems. But even, and I guess if you, well, I guess looking back, it wasn't me, but like to say there's no mode of transportation, I'm sure a fan would say, get in a van, buddy, come on, or whatever. So maybe that would. Oh, there's a lot of that, too. But they said, and I guess technically wasn't lying due to COVID and everything. Yeah. Due to the pandemic. Due to the pandemic, I'm not selling tickets. So many times ticket sales were, you know, it was hard on us because the movie came out in 2018. And we've learned that even a good or a bad movie, any kind of movie impacts the brand so much. Like God's Not Dead. I never saw it. Yeah. I heard about it. But, and, you know, and I don't know if it was great or not, you know. Oh, and everybody was texting. Remember that? Everybody was texting. God's not doing it. It was like three in the morning. Even that. Yeah. I remember the newsboys back in the day, like, their numbers doubled on tour. Rest in peace. On tour because of a movie that was, you know, people would say it was average at best. I don't know. I don't know. I did see it. I did see it, yeah. Oh, you're right. Yeah, yeah. It didn't matter. Like, or Jeremy Camp, whose movie, The Pandemic, shut the world down. Oh, I forgot about that. During his premiere. Yeah, I forgot about that. I remember I walked in to the premiere, and I told him, I was like, hey, I think we're good. As long as the NBA keeps going, we're set. And Jeremy was on tour with us. And we were supposed to leave the next night. What was that movie called? I still believe. I remember that. Yeah, and so we were supposed to be in Pensacola two nights later. And as we're sitting in the movie, everybody's phone goes off, and the NBA just shut down. And I was like, oh, shoot, we're in trouble because we're in the same places. And then two days later, we set everything up in Pensacola, which is not NBA. But Pensacola, and we set everything up, and we kept worrying, like, what do we do? What do we do? And then we had this long meeting after, like, 30 minutes before doors, and we were like, you don't want to be the last one to shut down. Nah, I didn't. And so we just didn't think it was working. And we didn't know what – nobody knew what it was. And so we shut it down and didn't work for 18 months. Yeah, the only guy touring was Danny Gokey. True, true. Well, I actually had, I was touring, and if you had a vaccine, we had to show your card, and then we wouldn't let you in. Did y go to we may have done that too at some point I feel like we did No I saying the opposite If you had a vaccine we wouldn let you in Oh wouldn let you in Yeah we got it Oh no we had places that venues that were like if you weren vaccinated they wouldn Yeah, we had that, too, yeah. And I'm trying to think if we did those shows or not. I can't remember. We might have given free meet and greets if you had a fake vax card. Dude. We were all, it was wild. Here's something crazy. So, speaking of vaccinations. So, we went 18 months without work. And I was so desperate to go back to work. And remember, there was that bit of like, no one's working unless you get vaccinated. Like, that's the deal. And so I got in line at the fairgrounds in Williamson County, the ag center or whatever, through a drive-through to get my first of two vaccinations. And I got that one. That's nuts. They were doing that in a car. Yeah, you stick your own car. I forgot about that. Yeah. I was doing a drive-up. They had the hazmat suits on. And so I'm telling them, they totally did. They had the big dentist face. I forgot about that. I was like, I don't have it. And these were like not doctors. Yeah. You could tell. Oh, yeah. They might have worked at the Ag Center. Yeah. I'm like, why do you have a teardrop tattoo? They were veterinarians at best. Yeah. They were from the Ag Center. So I got my shot, and I'm telling the guys, like, I'm doing this. And, you know, it's the first time nobody in the band thread. I'm like, I'm doing this. I get nothing back. I'm like, whatever. So I'm the first one. And then the rest of the guy's like, nah, we're good. And I was like, are you freaking kidding me? I got it and you didn't. I thought we were all in this together. Yeah, right? So then between that and you're supposed to come back for your second one later on. Oh, yeah. I was like, no, if y'all aren't doing it. So I never went back for the second one. What crazy part is, is that, man, months, man, it might have been years. I'm trying to think when I got it. I got a letter that said that my shot was a placebo. Like my shot wasn't. Oh, it was like a fake one. Well, they were doing both and not really. To test it. Whatever I signed, I'm sure I was fine with it too, but I didn't read it. But I never got the first vaccine. I was part of a trial deal or something like that. See, that's where it gets slow. You think? You don't know what was going on out there. Oh, man. I've got a friend that got a check from a big hospital here. Yeah. Like an envelope with a check for like $10,000 with no information on it or whatever. and this person was the same type of deal, that they were one of the placebos and they got a check for it. I got a check in the middle from a hospital for $10,000 with no explanation. Dude, she wouldn't cash it forever. She wouldn't cash it forever. She finally kept and found out. I don't know how she found out, but they were like, we're compensating those that feel like, I think they were getting ahead of some class action suit or whatever. Of like, we didn't rightfully inform you that. I'm about to email them and be like, what about me? Yeah, you get in there. But my friend was like, this is great because I regretted that I got vaccinated after the fact. Now you're telling me I didn't get 10 grand. I was like, yeah, you win. It's a win-win. I got nothing. I didn't get an Applebee's gift card or anything. Yeah, but I feel like, do you have to tithe on that, do you think? I don't know. That's a good question. Because I think God's like, hey, I don't want a grand of this. You're going to keep all that. Yeah, you keep all that. Give it to somebody else. You know what? You keep 15% of whatever you're going to get. I can't do my will without Bart, but in this case, I think I got some. Oh, you got some money to decide. What a wild time that was. Oh, dude, it was crazy. My son, which you saw, my son that's been a diabetic since he was two. Yeah. During that whole time, all the doctors were like, if he gets this, it'll kill him. And so we lived in absolute fear. The vaccine or COVID? No, COVID. Okay, yeah. When nobody knew what was going on, like, we were, like, I mean, we lived scared. Yeah. Never left the house. A lot of people did. Yeah, but, you know, rightfully so. And, you know, we had, you know, that weird line that was drawn between the people, like, I'll never wear a mask to, you know, all that craziness, you know, of like, it's like, wow, my, my friends have changed, you know, and, and, you know, I was just put, I was just as much put off by the true patriot that thought the government cared enough about him to shut their church down versus the, the ones that lived in so much fear that they've forgotten that God might still be in control of this. I'm going to say we're in the middle. We are definitely more afraid than anything. Of course, I'm praying that whoever thinks it's a joke is right. I'm hoping that it's not a big deal. And then once you come out and realize, not that it was bad. I mean, unless they're lying to me, it was pretty bad. But we got through it safely. And I could even say that those 18 months of being home were some of the most amazing. That's so long. I hope I never have to do it again, not just considering the circumstances. but I'll never get that back. And that was the most amazing time with my kids and being home. And, you know, and it's, it's where you go on vacation, you come back and you're trying to catch up with the rest of the world. Cause you know, the whole world was put on pause during that time. And that was the beauty of it. It was like, when this thing starts, it starts for all of us. Like I didn't lose any ground, so to speak. Oh yeah. That makes sense. You never wrote like a, I can only imagine what Applebee's is like, you know what I'm saying? Like, or like getting back out on the, uh, driving with no mask. You never wrote a parody? Somebody else has. I'm sure somebody else has. I didn't do a parody. Matthew West probably did. Shots fired. Shots fired. No, I would say that to him because he was here. Matthew's a buddy who are. Yeah, because you go, like, well, if, you know, you're on the football team and you tear your ACL. You're like, well, everybody else is practicing. I'm on the bench. You're behind. But if everybody... Tears their ACL. Yeah, then you're like... Exactly. That's the difference. But, dude, we, as comics, we were like, brother, we'll set up, like, a pallet in the parking lot and tell Joe. We didn't, like, drive-in. Like, we didn't. Some people that goes, oh, everybody's quitting. And then they paused themselves for 18 months. And me, Nate, Theo, like, they were doing drive-ins. We were making, like, we didn't stop. And we all benefited from it. tremendously you know we get we get emails and people saying stuff like you know your music or worship music whatever got us through covid i'm like dude comedy saved my life during covid i'm not kidding like that was team effort yeah and it was in you know it's funny because like i hope to god it never happens again like you know but if it did happen again like uh i feel like we were everybody was scrambling to utilize streaming like crazy like yeah it was all about the big screen before and then streaming became all the rage because nobody was making like zoom wasn't even a word it didn't exist and the rest in peace skype right but what would happen again like comedy just it was like gosh we need to laugh dude and i think you'd see so many comedy shows so many outlets for to do it yeah well i feel like in that time and this is maybe leading up to a question i have about today is what is he do and we we deal with it i mean you look i think I look back on that and I was, I don't know, in general, but I would in general be a resistant of anything like that. Like, and I wish I would have been more like resistant to it at the time. And then, but of course there's been social issues throughout history that you look back and go, I can't believe we did that. Or I can't believe we didn't do that. Didn't stop it or did, you know, and there's always like with things going on now. in the country and you go, gosh, what is my, like, I can't believe I didn't speak up or I can't believe I did speak up. Right. You know what I'm saying? And as a leader, I feel like in this, in this, whatever space I'm in and you the same, you go, well, people are like, all right, when, when do you choose to speak and then not speak? I don't know. I mean, hindsight is 20, 20. Like I wish I, you know, knowing what I know now. Sure. Yeah. If I, if, if, if that, if I knew it were true, then I, but you also had like serious in your own home. Yeah, my whole world then was keeping my son alive. As it should be. Yeah, yeah. And I'm not like, I don't ever, you know, in social media or whatever, I don't ever get political. I just don't, you know, that's just not my thing. You know, like, I mean, I'm involved, but I'm like, I just, it's not my platform not to do that. And so I usually don't try to, if I'm trying to be hope for everybody, then I just, I don't choose sides, I guess. Like if you did storm the Capitol, you'd wear a mask. Well, let me think. Would I wear a mask before I went in or when I came out? I don't know. No, I would be there, but I wouldn't. Yeah, I would take it off as soon as I was inside. Oh, my gosh. Or both sides. Yeah, or the other side. Yeah, yeah. I would wear a mask. Yeah. No, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think people even – and now I don't even know what on the Internet is real or not. Oh, dude, it's insane. I don't either. It's like – Imagine if we had AI during COVID. Good thing we didn't. Oh, yeah. Because you wouldn't know what. We would still be in the pandemic. You'd be like, dude, they did what? You're like, oh, that's fake. We weren't ready for AI and COVID at the same time. The hard part is that for me, I don't know about you, the fear of drawing the line and then having to walk it back when you realize, oh, I was misinformed or whatever the case is. That's hard. And it's like, you know, and it's the court of public opinion is real. yep and even if you are even if i go back and forth but even if you were correct like uh terribly cobble who yeah she came from the bible recap yeah she goes yeah she's awesome she's great and she said something i feel like i think about every day she's like we don't want to scream where the bible whispers and whisper where the bible screams yes and you go man like yeah it did say that but But it didn't say it like you're saying it. Or it said it once versus 800 times of this. And then there's screaming about this. And that's what I think people's frustration with, at least publicly or online, that you go, why are you all screaming about this and not this? So you go, even if you are correct about some social issue, you go, you have to draw like a, you would be wildly offended if someone said, you should leave your you're like well i got a situation in my house here that i'm trying to protect my son yeah yeah and then you go oh let me walk back my state you go oh i didn't think about that or then you go somebody else goes hey i got a business with 50 employees we have to open or these people don't aren't going to be able to work so everybody's situation was kind of like to be like everything should shut down or everything should open it's like yeah especially back then when twitter was what it was it's like you're trying to defend your case in 140 characters or less yeah yeah yeah and so people just not talk about shots fired with no context and so it's like i just learned it's like man it's it's not worth it you know it's not a burner account right totally yeah and yeah it's it's uh yeah we had friendships change during that time of like you know just people assuming one thing and then you realize man you know i'm doing this i'm trying to keep my kid alive and you know you ever have anybody uh that uh because you always need uh support on your tours support meaning yeah other bands yeah yeah you ever have somebody a band pitch to you and you go god like wanting to be on the tour and you go i don't like that guy Don't say a name, but you go, can we just not with them? Not that I don't like that guy, no. But, man, we've been doing it for 32 years, and so we just decided if we're going to keep touring, it is nuts. Same guys or no? Well, let's see. Our original keyboard player, Jim, he was one of the founding members. He left in 2012. What did he got to do? He wanted to be his family, just be off the road. Okay, that's fair. Yeah, that's back to her, yeah. It was like he wanted to be a painter or something like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly, yes. But then we added a member, Barry. Barry's our youngest member, and he was 22 years ago or whatever. Yeah. But, yeah, all the same guys up until probably four years in. And everybody's still friends? We're best friends. Like, that's the only way it works. That is a miracle, brother. Yeah, that is 100% a miracle. That is a miracle. You hear about all those bands that have their own tour buses now, but every band member has their own bus because they hate it. They all hate each other. Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, no, we still, like, we rarely stay in hotels anymore, but if we do, like, we still, we hate having our own room. Like, Barry's my room. All right, well, that's the red flag, brother. No. It's just, it's boring, man. It's boring, yeah, yeah. So we always, we room with each other or whatever, but, yeah, they're my best friends. We still get along like crazy. Like, we're at our kids' birthday parties and wedding showers, like, as of two days ago. Like, we do everything off the road. Like, we genuinely get along great. That's the only reason it happens. Oh, kids' weddings. Yeah, our kids. Who's just getting married? No, I'm saying, yeah, like, yeah, I mean, we're involved with each other's lives. That's nuts. Yeah, like, me and my guitar player will drive our kids to their Little League baseball game tonight and sit there. Yeah. I mean, we just, yeah, we've just done life forever, and that's the only way to do it. It's like, life's too short, dude, if you're not enjoying it. But that's the opening act thing was it's not that we don't like people. Like, we tend to lean towards the guys that we have relationships with. Like we love Crowder with all of our heart. And so we would take him on every tour if we possibly could. We just want the hang. It's not, I mean, I feel like 32 years, we're on borrowed time that we're still doing this. And so we want it to be a great experience and enjoyable and just be with friends. Don't you ever think, it is, what's that gambling? It's a gambling reference. Something about the ones that didn't start and the ones that did start are not here anymore. or something about just to keep doing it, to be doing it. You look back at your old tour posters. I look back at Brother Winter Jam 2018. There's three bands still doing it. Me, Skillet, and Kerry Jo. Oh, wow, really? Yeah, all the other ones are not doing it. He becomes a pastor. Not that that's a... You know. Wait, okay, hold on. So what year was it that you did the awards show? I don't know which awards show it was. Okay, dude. And you took the shots fired at Chris Tomlin. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I remember. Oh, yeah, the Doves. Yeah, that was 2008, 19. About the same time? Yeah. I remember sitting there and, like, never seen anybody. Like, I loved it, but just no one would just kind of roast somebody. And I remember you doing it, and it was like, oh, you know, and Tomlin was like, you know, he was it. In fact, you know, he's half-raised our God. I got this bit. This bit is like a Chris Tomlin song. I didn't write it, but I'm going to capitalize on it. Do you remember? Yes, dude. That's so great. I was like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, that wasn't like it. But it was like, and I wrote, I was at the Caleb Fan Awards the year before, and I did a whole monologue, and they cut the whole thing. And, well, first of all, I wrote 50 more jokes. They go, we're not, we know, dude. I go, what is this, like the DC Talk Cruise? I go, what is this, like the Kevin Mac Scholarship Fund or something? And they were like, no. I like all these jokes. I go, who came up with the DC Talk Cruise, the CEO of Family Bookstores? Like that's right when Family Bookstores went out of business. And they were like, yeah, we're not using any of this, dude. I thought – I remember I was sitting next to like – it was maybe Crowder and then like the guys from Family Force 5, and we were so open. Same with them. What happened to them? That you would do a joke with us. We were like, please make fun of us. Yeah, that's how it is in the mainstream. I would go after everybody, but not somebody I don't know or don't respect. You know what I'm saying? I just thought it was great. I just remember people were like, this guy's coming in hot. Well, do you remember that it was like Coachella but like Christchella? Are you for real? This is back in – I made it like a fake poster. Oh, I thought you said it was a real deal. No, it was like a fake poster of like, you know, it was like Hillsong, Hillsong Children, and Hillsong embryos. It was just roasting Bethel worship planned spontaneous worship set or all these things that you're like, I can't believe he's saying this. That's awesome. It was like a different era of nobody was ready for that. And you've got stuff like, what is it, Green Room Revival? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're doing it now, but it's kind of like us with YouTube when nobody knew what it was. You were doing stuff. It was coming in hot. Yeah, and it was different. And now it's like everybody's, you know, the climate has definitely changed probably because of people like you. Don't put me in. No, I'm saying a compliment because I was a fan. And it was like, you know, the first one through the wall usually gets shot. Yes. And that's, you know what I mean? But it's like what I was saying now. Now our label, we'll make an album, and then our longer meetings are building content. Like the album is now another form of content. It's my fault. As soon as the album is done, I have to become an SNL comedy writer. Gosh. Yeah, yeah. It's like, well, you used to do it. We used to do things called cover tune grab bags that we just thought were hilarious. Yeah. You should do those again. We're like, well, no. Now you're telling us to. That's not. That's not. That's like, tell a joke. They'll laugh. Go ahead. You're like, that's not how this works. Yeah, gross. I'm not telling a joke now. Yeah. Yeah. Ben Rector, we talk a bunch, and he goes, I'm not for the internet. Yeah. Like, I don't want. I want to make music. And sometimes he has, like, long form that are more like, like, his songs are more like. He's like, this isn't for clips. Yeah. I can't clip 15 seconds of this song. Yeah. That's not what, but like we've had artists in here, poor country artists that were like, I'm literally writing for the TikTok clip. Yeah. And Ben's a great one because Ben will do content that's so smart about, you know, he'll write a song about tipping your waiter or whatever. Man that drive me places. Oh, but I'm saying his best content has nothing to do with his album or his tour. And he's wearing the dumb London Fog 80s jacket and dad hair. Wow. No, I love it, though. It's like everything you want him to be. Yeah, I love that guy. You don't make content. Yeah. Leave it to, like, yeah, the people that begrudgingly are making content. Yeah. If you have something you think is funny or whatever, do it. But just because it's Tuesday and time to post, don't bother. No. Oh, dude. All right, I want to ask you about one thing before we get out of here. And I've always thought, so when we had a, you ever heard of this song called Everyone Overcome by John Egan. It's a everyone overcome. It's like an old worship song. Maybe I'll get it. Are you joking? No, no, no. I knew you were joking, dude. Dang, you almost got me. By the Lamb and the word of our... I don't think I know it. Okay, well, you could just say you know it. I do know it. And then I could have gone on with it. Sometimes I ask people in the crowd stuff, and I'm trying to get them... Whatever I go, is it this or this? Whatever one you say, I'll take the joke in that direction. I go, can you see what I'm doing here? Just kidding. But I remember because I went to New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 2008 to 2011. We had a shooting at our church where a gunman came in. Wait, you lived there? I lived there. I thought you meant you were doing a show there. No, I was there at the time. It was my home church. and one of the probably one of the most powerful spiritual experiences I ever had was they were like we're going to have a worship night like two nights later and this place was packed and they sang this song everyone overcome and you were like whatever is on the other side of this life or that it's that yeah yeah does that make sense yeah 100% And then I go, and then there's a lot of, like, a lot of people, I guess, that have, like, deconstructed the church or, like, kind of, or, like, been critical or they're, like, it's, like, emotional, like, manipulation. I don't know if my question makes sense you're like well yeah isn't it aren't you trying to at your live show build some kind of feeling whether it's with lights or maybe darkness or maybe you tone down your voice or maybe say everybody close your eyes aren't you trying to manipulate maybe the wrong word but aren't you trying to conjure maybe some emotion imagine is your closer right i would guess uh sort of i mean you play it first it's before it's the closer the main set there's an encore yeah usually yeah but everybody talks about how it's like spiritual manipulation to like do any kind of earthly addition to just singing of a song what's the question are you asking me if do we manipulate well yeah no i'm asking on some levels i guess we do because we of lights and stuff like that but yeah we're not ones that i like we don't do altar calls and stuff like that like we're not i'm not one to go hey we're gonna have church tonight because i think church is a little deeper than that when you it's the ones that get to walk along someone that has cancer and that does life with them every day man we're just we're just a shot in the arm man i mean it's like it's just you know hopefully a couple hours to where it's like the crowd can sing as one and agree on something, on Jesus, hopefully. And so, yeah, we have lights. We have all of it. I don't think there's an endgame to it as far as there's manipulation. Or like a secret. There's no secret here. Yeah, I'm not trying to go, well, we had 1,100 people come to know Jesus tonight. No, dude. We're just trying to have them forget, like set everything at the door for a couple of hours and just enjoy. I feel like I think our show would be the same. Yeah. It's really no deeper than that. I mean, that's it. It's like, hey, man, just turn it off for a couple hours. Just, you know, you can worry about that stuff when you leave. That's all it is. There's no results. There's no numbers we're trying to feed. There's no, you know what I mean, like get out of it. It's just, you know. And then trying to put on the best show possible because they're paying for tickets, dude. Yeah. Wardrobe's expensive. It is, right? Especially me. Yeah. Well, I feel like if you go to, if you're going to Wichita Falls, Texas, which I don't know why I picked that city but you go it's so unique and I bet we're doing the same thing in a lot of ways because you come in there and you go hey so everyone is in here together everyone's together and the pandemic of suicide or even self harm or addiction you go I'm alone nobody else feels this way you all come in there together and then you're There is a unifying, whether it's we're joking about this or we're joking about your kids, your parents, social media, your boss, the road construction. And you go, oh, I do feel, you do leave my show and your show similar. You do leave feeling whatever these challenges or obstacles or health issues, I do feel like now I can. Yeah, you got to, hopefully you got to break from it for a moment. like we go at my ever since i started we always said man i don have to know you know the one thing we all have in common is we understand what hurt and pain is Man And so like I don and it very important to say that instead of that we all know Jesus Not necessarily the case. But we all understand what it means to hurt. You're looking at these people like some of these people do not know Jesus. Right. You can tell by looking at them. But they all have been hurt or feel pain. And so whether they can laugh for a couple of hours or worship or we're – you know, we're not the best looking or best fit guys. So we try to make them laugh, too. But it's like if and then we just sing about the hope that we have that got us through our hurt and our pain. And and that's all it is. It's you know, there's there's not a there's not an agenda. There's not a card to fill out. And you've been selling tickets for how long? Selling tickets. Well, we signed a record deal in ninety nine. And my word, that's just so many tickets. Yeah. Over so long. Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, before then, we probably just got paid a flat to do a camp or something like that. Yeah, same. Yeah, but as far as hard ticket sales, it would have been probably 2000, maybe, is when we started, I guess. You got any horror stories from the beginning? Oh, yeah, I had a lot of horror stories. Did somebody just, you're not even, you don't have any hits, you don't have anything? No, we didn't have anything. You just go play, I Saw the Light or something? We played Clinton, Oklahoma on a Friday night. and our keyboard player, which he always had to have the actual B3 organ, which weighed 8 billion pounds. And we had to go up to this top floor. It would be like in a building like we're in now. We had to carry this, with no elevator, carry this dumb thing up the deal. We set up. There was no stage. It was just a wide open floor. And we set up, and they put desk lamps across the front and turned them up on us. And we're like, what's happening? And these kids start coming in, and the guy walks in and goes, Hey, man, we played one song, and the kids are looking at us like, what? Like they were offended. And the guy walks up and goes, here's the deal, dude. He's like, the high school's having their prom tonight, and our middle school's pretty upset about it. So can y'all just play instrumental music so they can dance? It was a Methodist church. And we're like, what? And he goes, they just want to dance, man. And I was like, are you kidding me? And so I looked at our cue player. I was like, because in Soundshake, he would jokingly play like Yanni type music. I was like, just do your Yanni stuff. And I went and sat down behind the soundboard for the entire show as he played like bad Kenny G type music. And I remember the drummer, and we hired a session player drummer because we didn't have full time. We went through several drummers for a while. And this guy is like the best of the best session player. And he's like, because we thought this was a big gig, and he's playing. and this kid walks through, like past the desk lamps, up to him with his headphones on and says, play this song. Like you're a DJ. Yeah, and our drummer's going, get away from me. You don't appreciate me. He's trying to kick him off as he's playing drums. And yeah, I sang one song and then just sat in the back and watched him play instrumentings the whole time in Clinton, Oklahoma. It was easier back then, you know. I mean, it was more difficult because nobody was making any money, but it was simpler times. I had a social media. I'm glad social media went around. I don't know. We probably would have. Yeah, I don't know what would have happened there. But it's still, if you ask anybody in the band, worst show, they'll say it. Not even blink. And they all are still in the band from then. Yeah. Yes. That's wild. 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Love to hear it. The good people over at Blue Lamb have a special offer for listeners, as one does. Right now, get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com slash netpositive. Don't miss it, blueland.com slash netpositive for 15% off. That's blueland.com slash netpositive to get 15% off. I can't imagine the early days of a stand-up. Yeah, horrific. Well, you don't really, first of all, you don't really do an open mic. If you wanted to start stand-up today, you could start, and you would have to do open mics. And then somebody would ask you to come do you. It was like word of mouth at the beginning through churches. It was like youth groups, like Valentine's Day, and then you would go to casinos. True Love Wave conferences. Yeah, it was like if you had a headshot. I mean, we did a – it was like some Christian conference. You could go back on my Instagram. Somebody who's listening to this podcast and goes back on my Instagram and finds this and sends it to me. It was like a – there was like Christian, like a Build-A-Bear. It was like a Build-A-Bear where you would put like love notes to your future husband like inside this bear. And you're going to give it to him on your wedding night. And I go, hey, nobody wants this. You're going to cut that doll open to give it to him. Yeah, nobody wants this. And it was like Christian underwear or like a chastity underwear. It's on my Instagram. I promise you it's on my Instagram. Probably 2015. There was like 1 Corinthians 4, 6. And it was like, hey, this is all. The role of testaments. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like I was doing comedy and then like VeggieTales were closing or something like that. And you're like, I can't follow the VeggieTales. Would you do a lot of festivals and stuff like that? Tons, dude, tons. And they're like a lot of, but like I couldn't sell tickets at the time. So somebody was like, this guy's a comedian. Now, would there be times during this, would you ever just try to go in a comedy club and do it? No, I never left the comedy club. Oh, but the comedy club. Because I'm wondering like a comic Christian, which I know for the most part, I mean, it's like, do they, do you start in comedy clubs or at a Valentine's banquet at a church? Well, I started in the comedy clubs, and I knew that if I was going to go anywhere, that I cannot leave these. So I would do, like, Oklahoma City. I would do Thursday, Friday, Saturday at the comedy club. Like, not the headliner, like the host. Yeah, yeah. For, like, $150 total. Did you have a regular spot? No, I was just asking everybody to come open for them or asking the clubs if I could come by. But there wasn't, like, a, you know, like, Nate's kind of like Zany's and that kind of thing? No, there's none of that. There's none of that. And then I would do like a church for maybe like $1,500 on Sunday. And then I was somehow like piecing it together like that. So I was clean. So I kind of had an easier path through. You could book corporates because they just have to be clean. Like you don't want to offend everybody at the church or maybe at the company. So you could get on, make a living pretty early. But I wasn't good for, I mean, it was just, I mean, you'd go out to do like, because people would see a video and they were like, come do that for my birthday in my living room. And I was like, well, I can't. Like Kevin Hart can't. Yeah, yeah. It's not. Yeah. Is there a mic? I'm going to stand on the fireplace. Like I can't. I physically can't do it, but I didn't. I don't know quite like those early days of you are the like anything could happen on stage now. and you'd be ready. Somebody could come up. Somebody could throw something. Oh, you wouldn't trade those days. Mike could go out. No, because you go, dude, I don't want to relive them. No, no, no, no. I don't want to go back to them. It does. It toughens you up. No, I mean, there's people have stood up, thrown things. People have like a heart attack. They have to wheel them out of there. There's nothing that could like rattle me because of all that. And you probably feel the same. We did a church camp early on, and the Lemonheads had done a cover. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. Yeah. And just because it says, Jesus loves you more, we thought we should cover the song. Yeah. And so we did it at this camp, and we were playing it. And this adult from one of the churches, multiple churches, came to the front while I'm singing, and he's yelling that we're going to hell. Like, we're going to hell. Like, stay alive, because when you're like crazy. Because when you die, you're going to hell. Yeah. As we're singing it, I'm like, I can't hear you. Yeah. and i was like what happened and of course i had no idea well where the song was coming from or whatever i just thought it was a cool tune yeah but uh but yeah we've had a we've had we've had moments that have definitely we've learned from but uh i wouldn't want to and you get mad at somebody after for not doing something about that but on stage yeah there's no i mean i remember tim hawkins i would learn a lot from him coming up because he he had a kid like he would make all those jokes about chick-fil-a oh yeah all those jokes about chick-fil-a and a kid and you know like in a theater there's no there's a distinction between stage and crowd and you honestly can't it's probably six feet to climb up to get onto the stage is a a church is right it's just steps two steps you can go right to the front and maybe and you go right up yeah and so a kid like has a chick a bag of chick-fil-a and like walks up on the stage and gives it to him and like he you know a homeschool kid thought that would be funny or like he's a comedian i'm doing it'll be everybody's gonna laugh and he was like okay thanks and like made some kind of joke and played it off like a professional and then got off stage dude and ripped his tour manager like dude what yeah i don't what are you doing like how can you what would you do in that situation same thing yeah i don't i don't same thing i i can do well with most anything if they get on stage of fan or like i get i get a little freaked out now yeah yeah oh yeah for sure oh dude you know after the the vegas shootings or whatever like our the band and crew we all went through like a like with fbi from fbi like like a triage and if something happens to the point to where we were clearing rooms yeah like you know like like i don't carry but we went through like it was it was the struggle was real back then and oh yeah like the the front of house guy was he was off of our tour doing that one yeah he still has holes across the front of his case bullet holes and scared the heck out of us man well yeah i i yeah everything you see now i do i i i've had you always see the people in the crowd that are like not like you know there's a thousand people dying laughing at one guy's one crazy and you go he hasn't blinked yeah you're not quite sure what that i think i made a joke i made a joke about um i don't remember what it was a couple weeks ago about the like a rich somebody rich up front i go oh yeah i bet you you you when you guys married i bet i bet you work for i bet you work for her dad and he did and he was like i mean 99 times out of 100 it's fun he read his mail and he wasn't happy about it i but i'm not sure i'm not i'm not trying to guess this live while doing stand-up i'm trying to peace together and this guy is not happy like not happy and i'm like the the set so like the countdown clock clock goes and i'm like i'm i'm kind of the show's done but i'm still going because the crowd's great yeah i'm still kind of and he gets up and some other joke about i think something that was also sensitive to him early show and like walks like and i go like towards you no towards And I go, hey, I closed. Because I go, I don't know quite what he's doing or what he, you know what I'm saying? Because these days, if you are like, offense is taken in a weird way that you're like, well, I must install justice. It used to be you'd be offended by somebody, just leave you. That kind of hurt my feelings. And now it's like, I need to do something about this. Like I've only seen – like I haven't seen your whole show live. I just see the social media. But like do you do a lot of crowd work? Pretty good about. Do you read the room before you decide if you're doing crowd work or is it just going to happen? Well, all of my crowd work is – it ends in a bit. Yeah. It's not just like, hey, what do you do for a living? Yeah, yeah. It's like, hey – You're getting somewhere. Like where was your first date? And like, okay, because mine was about – or have you ever – I've asked a question about if you anybody been baptized here in the front i do that at the end of my show and then somebody has a it tells their story and then if when when it fizzles out i go into the story so it's not just like yeah yeah what's the clemente you're like all right dude we're it all has a it all has a it it can't fizzle out yeah because it goes into one of them yeah i go in hives and i see like guys like matt rife that just he's great at it that's that's that's my worst night like like we're doing the same set every night like it's down to a t what about your guys roll their eyes that they're your jokes uh oh yeah they'll probably mouth them with me because like once we get in the groove it's like and it used to not be that way but but now it's like i just get locked in and and and you know see you gotta like i was with we had a show with josh turner yeah yeah Speaking of corporate gigs, like two nights ago. Yeah. And he did a, he introduced his band. And if he goes, you ever seen a, you know, he's like a, what's that guitar that's on a pedal steel? Yeah, he goes, this guy's from, you know, San Bernardino, California. If he's like, you ever heard of Bigfoot? You ever heard of the Loch Ness Monster? What a fiddle player from San Bernardino. And the joke murdered. And you could see, he goes, he does this every night. Oh, yeah. You know the joke that you go, this is a bread and butter. If the band laughs at me, it's a new joke. They go, oh. And they're just like, hey, man, they're throwing me money and stuff like that. Yeah, they're like, oh, wow. Have you ever had the worst night ever? You just bombed and somebody's like, that's the best show I've ever seen. All the time. Frick. Why not? It's putting in so much work. You sell the most merch of all time. Where are you guys doing the show? Yeah, you're just wanting to apologize. You're just like, what am I doing? Why am I trying so hard? I don't think anybody goes to comedy enough to know that this one's not good. That's a good point. And I don't. You get to see the show every night. They are not good, but they don't know they're not good. I've had one where I had laryngitis. Yeah. Because of the vaccine? Maybe. I just was wiped out. And I have, at the point, I'd never cancel a show. I did cancel one because I actually had COVID. Yeah. But I didn't want to cancel, and I had no voice, took the steroid shots, nothing was working. And I literally was like, I can't sing, and I just held my mic out, and they sang the whole show. And they're like, that's the greatest show of my life. And I'm like, what am I – I should have went to bed. Yeah. I didn't know I could do this the whole time. At some point, I'm crying because I can't do my job, and, of course, they loved it. And so the band's like, can you lose your voice every night? I think we sold more shirts. One time, I'm not going to say who the artist is. but you'll tell me later I'll tell you later well on a winter jam this is where I learned this is where I learned was it 2018 no no no no I narrowed it down to three I was actually on winter jam six times wow no I wasn't but yeah yeah just for the sake of this bit he goes shoot shoot I got the winter jam bingo card out I guess for artists like yeah you do you lose your voice sometimes yeah and they'll go we're gonna do tonight on the track oh yeah they call it a 911 track i don't have one but a lot of guys do the whole show and i was like what and we were on the bus and i go what he goes i'm not i can't sing yeah but i'm not going to cancel the show we're going to do the whole thing and i was like you can do that yeah a lot of i i didn't realize i we don't have one i i probably wish tell me after if you got one no i don't i really don't i mean my crew wants me to have one my management wants me to have one but i was like i would rather tell them i've lost my voice and i'm trying versus just just you know fake it through now some guys there are certain songs that they recorded a certain key yeah and they cannot hit it and oh they do it like because their voice doesn't go there anymore no no and it may not have been they may have pushed that thing up with a laptop but uh and they do they have to do it every night just that one song but um you know like i and then they have audio track for the song uh they for the bridge mostly goes really high and when they get to the bridge and he just goes no when they go to the bridge i don't believe this i i what no trust me it's true the the the backlighting they make a silhouette of him and he just stays in the mic where he can't really see his lips moving but it's dramatic deal he does the bridge as soon as the bridge is over he's back to singing live he like he literally can't hit it and it's like how do you get around it like and if he lowers the key the rest of it sounds weird yeah and he's he's like he doesn't if you're on tour like you know like he's not trying to hide it yeah except i guess you know but now does uh and if you get there one of these days we won't judge you does the band say hey you're not hitting this anymore or do you say i can't hit this anymore uh well there we will uh they had to pull you aside no like uh if like if i have to jump the shark more than once meaning every night then we will lower some songs like a half step down like in the studio i'll hit the high note but i have to do it night after night I'll lose my voice. So not every song, but a lot of songs are half-step down just so I can keep going. I roasted. We did a roast of Winter Jam on like the last weekend, and I roasted all the bands. And I said, and it's crazy that John Cooper has been out here because he doesn't even play bass. And it was awesome. He still brings that up. And he went on that night. He went on stage and did like a bass solo for like 10 minutes. Yeah, just he goes to John's Chris said I couldn't play bass. I go, dude, I was just... That's pretty awesome. Because he's throwing the thing around. Yeah, totally. Because some of the... They go, well, the country artists especially, they go, well, you're not playing anymore. You're just holding the guitar. Yeah. But it still sounds pretty full. Right. So you must have a guy... Or it's on tracks, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's a lot of... You go, man, this sounds pretty... But it's... Nowadays, you have a band with no bass player on stage. Yeah. Really? Like the Newsboys didn't have a bass player for a long time after Phil left and stuff. Yeah. But there's bass still on... You're like, well, yeah, there's bass. Yeah, how's their bass? It's like the track's cheaper and doesn't need for DM versus a real bass player. Yeah, we have a video. It doesn't take a bus space. We had a video, like a comedic sketch video that plays, and I go, you know, 10 minutes open. Not probably five minutes now, but it just gets everybody warmed up, and I go, yeah, that sketch video doesn't take a bunk. In a way, they're like, yeah, it's cheaper. You should somehow make fun of bands using tracks and then just have the track finish that bit where you're just standing there getting it off. Dude, that's a great idea. And then you just go like this. It's like, man, people using tracks. It's not fair to them. And just keep moving. And then I go like this. And then it's cough. And it just keeps the bit going. You're like, well, how's he doing it? It'd be pretty funny. Yeah. That's a great idea, dude. Hey, bright minds. Well, tell us about the movie. We'll wrap up. When is the movie out? Where can we find it? The movie comes out February 20th. I can only imagine two. It's a story around the sun. Brother, this podcast is live. This podcast is not coming out in a month. It's coming out tomorrow. It's in real time. I didn't know when it dropped. Well, it comes out this Friday. You know one of those podcasts. You're like, when is this pod coming out? It's like in June. I forgot what I said. This movie comes out this Friday and or last Friday, depending on when they post it. This is coming out tomorrow. Yeah. So, yeah, it goes out nationwide. This Friday. Yeah, this Friday. And the response has been overwhelming. And who made it, Andy? Yeah, Kingdom, Andy Irwin, and Brett McCorkle. Andy Irwin, one of the best. Faith films are kind of the Wild West. Heck of a resume. Yeah, it's kind of the Wild West. Everybody's rooting for everybody else. I say more than just so that more faith films will be told. I'm pretty sure the Wild West was the opposite of that. They weren't rooting for everybody else. Well, I'm saying it's us against them, so to speak. Like Hollywood, they don't get it. But when people buy tickets and go see the movie, they listen. and more faith films get made, but more importantly, the faith films get better. Yeah. The more they try. And so, yeah, one day maybe it's not just separate as faith films, just good movies. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if Andy B, he's sniffing around a John Crist story. I go, no, brother, not yet. Yeah, I think so. Maybe I'll have to have another. True Love Weights conference. Yeah. I might have to have another scandal or something. And then we can have another better comeback or something, do you think? Maybe. I love that you're working a scandal just because of that movie. No, it would be better. It's a character development, really. Yeah, I have to go away. I have to go away for what happened to him. Or have him make it where, you see, that's the thing. What are the rules? Make it a true story and then go into fiction. Create the scandal on film. Yeah. Go away. Be a hermit in the mountains. Now we're talking. Yeah, it's just doing push-ups. Go from real to what just happened and back. I don't remember this. That would be amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Andy's great, man. Yeah, go see the movie. It's unbelievable. It's coming out this Friday. Honored to have you aboard, brother. Thanks, pal. Appreciate it. I mean, yeah, sure, it was a little weird, but on the net, on the, on the, it was a positive. It was a positive. You cannot be serious. On the net, it's a positive. you